


The Maiden and The Beast

by pinkevilbob



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22846135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkevilbob/pseuds/pinkevilbob
Summary: Jester had always dreamed about what her wedding would be like. She only never imagined that it would be to a monster.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 18
Kudos: 106





	The Maiden and The Beast

**Author's Note:**

> So I love the tropes of monsters and arranged marriages, so I combined them surprising absolutely no one.

The wedding of Jester Lavorre was a joke. It wasn’t even a funny one. The whole thing started out with a prank, Jester’s best one yet, but Lord Robert Sharpe didn’t agree with that. He’d demanded Jester’s capture, and she hadn’t gotten out of Nicodranas fast enough. It was only her mother’s pleading that she hadn’t been executed. Instead, she was to marry whomever Lord Sharpe chose for her and live a year with her new spouse.

Jester managed to smile the whole wedding giggling and grinning when the moment required levity. Marion cried the entire wedding and Jester couldn’t add to her mother’s sadness by crying herself. So, she smiled the entire ceremony while her groom snarled and growled from his cage.

Her husband-to-be was a massive dire leopard, wild and cruel. A wound marred its side and was stained dark reddish brown, but no fresh blood leaked out. The leopard spent the entire ceremony pacing its cage growling and snarling. If anyone got too close to it, the dire leopard would lash its great paw through the bars and try to rake its claws into their flesh. Fortunately, it missed every time, but everyone kept their distance to stay safe. Flower chains were draped over the cage and intertwined the bars. All they did was add to how gross of a bad joke it all was.

“If there are no objections,” the cleric said, “I now pronounce you ma-, erm creature and wife. You may now kiss the bride. Wait, is that even possible?” the cleric mumbled to themself.

The dire leopard backed into the corner of its cage hissing with its hackles up. With its fur on end, it looked even bigger than it already was. Its bright blue eyes were locked on Jester as it kept hissing at her. It was afraid, somehow it was afraid of Jester. It was almost enough to make her laugh.

Jester just kept on smiling and blew a kiss to the dire leopard. If anything, it appeared to be even more frightened than before. But what could a big dire leopard fear from her?

* * *

“Here it is. Your husband’s home,” Lord Sharpe said waving at a hole in the ground. “A fine first cave.”

Jester’s stomach dropped. Already Lord Sharpe’s guards were lowering the dire leopard’s cage into the hole while it roared and fussed. It was growing more and more tempting to cry, but Jester wasn’t going to show weakness to him. “It’s very quaint, but the neighborhood leaves a lot to be desired. Are you sure we can’t live in Nicodranas?”

Lord Sharpe laughed dryly. “Hardly. Your husband wouldn’t do well there. It’s better for you to live in his home.”

“But how am I supposed to go in and out?” The sides of the hole were angled so that it would be impossible to climb and there weren’t any steps or a ladder.

“The same way your husband is entering. And we’ll make sure to remember to come once a day to feed the two of you.” The smile Lord Sharpe gave her made her worry even more.

Jester took a step back. “But what about leaving? Like when I need to go visit my mom?”

“And leave your honeymoon early?” Lord Sharpe laughed. He was the kind of person who thought he was more clever and funny than he really was. “You’ll leave after your year has passed. It’ll be over before you know it.”

She looked around tempted to run away, but they were in the jungle and if even if she got away, she’d only get lost. Jester had no choice but to be lowered into the hole. The guard set up a swing of sorts for Jester to sit on as they lowered the rope down the hole.

Once she was down there, Jester discovered that the hole opened up into a cave. The floor was dirt and the cave was about the size of her mother’s room. It wasn’t completely bare though. There was a bed that nearly matched the one in Jester’s room, but it was wide enough for two people. A dresser and nightstand also joined the bed. If Jester ignored the noise, it could be seen as an exciting adventure like in one of the books she’s read, but she couldn’t ignore the noise or the cage in the middle cave.

The dire leopard stood on its hind legs and roared up at the swing as it was brought back up. Jester ran back to the hole. “Wait! You’re not really going to leave me here are you?” she asked.

“Of course,” Lord Sharp said. “Who are we to interrupt your honeymoon?” And with that he and his guards were gone.

Jester waited a couple of minutes staring up out of the hole. They really had abandoned her there alone all by herself. She collapsed on to her knees and began sobbing. Watery blubbering wails escaped her as she shook and held herself tightly. The pure white wedding dress she’d been forced into was getting dirty on the ground, but she didn’t care. Any chance of a happy life had been stripped from her.

* * *

Jester didn’t know how much time she had spent on the ground, but it was starting to get dark when she got up. Her face was all sticky and gross from crying, but there wasn’t any water there for her to wash with. She was sore and stiff as she got up. Every part of her complained as she stood.

The dire leopard stared at her. She didn’t know when it had stopped its growling and roaring, but Jester was grateful for that much. It was starting to hurt her head.

She flopped on the bed and curled up into a ball. “Oh Traveler,” she whispered. “Today really sucked.”

“Judging by your current abode, I would certainly say so,” a familiar lilting voice said. The Traveler’s cloak sat down on the bed.

“Yeah.” Jester was glad that she had already ran out of tears. “I got married to that.” She pointed at the dire leopard.

The Traveler shifted next to her. “Hmm, not quite what I had expected for your type, but you’ve surprised me before.”

Jester tried to giggle at his joke, but she just didn’t have it in her. “No it’s not like that at all. He wasn’t my choice. This is a punishment. I have to stay here for a year with him.”

“That won’t do,” The Traveler said.

“Yeah I know.” Jester sat up. “But there’s no way out of here, and even if there were, they might try to hurt my mom.”

“Ah, and we can’t let that happen either. So how do we turn this into our prank and not theirs?” the Traveler asked.

Jester slumped down. “I don’t know. This whole thing is just terrible.”

“Now, there must still be a spark of chaos in your heart,” the Traveler said nudged her shoulder.

She frowned, staring at the dire leopard. “It’s just going to be me and him here. Oh,” she clapped her hands, “what if you stay here? Then I’d always have a guest here that they don’t know about. That’d be a good prank.”

“It would be, but I can’t stay here. You know that,” the Traveler said. He had a lot of followers who called upon his blessings that he had to be there for. Jester knew that, but it didn’t mean she liked sharing him.

“I know.” But that didn’t stop her from pouting. “Do you really think I can make it here by myself for a year?”

The Traveler chuckled. “But you’re not alone.” He pointed at the dire leopard. “And there’s no one I believe in more than you out of all my followers.”

Jester grinned. “Thanks” She watched the dire leopard. It was staring at her and looked almost confused. “A prank involving the dire leopard. I could try to trick the guards down here and let it loose, but I don’t want to kill anyone.”

“That’s fair. Killing is highly overrated,” the Traveler said.

“Maybe I could say that he’s - no that doesn’t make sense,” Jester said.

The Traveler looked at her. “What is it? Perhaps we can build off of it.”

“Well, all I can do at the moment is talk to people, so all I got is fibbing, I guess. So maybe I just ‘ohh, the dire leopard is such a good husband. We’re very happy down here. This is the best punishment ever’. You know that sort of thing.” Jester stared at the monster. It recoiled a bit.

“Hmm, could work. Might not get you out, but it could put somebody’s knickers in a twist,” the Traveler said.

Jester stood up and approached the cage. “What do you think?” The dire leopard backed away from her. “I don’t think he likes me,” Jester said over her shoulder to the Traveler.

“Well, there’s no accounting for taste,” the Traveler said.

“I should probably give you a name,” Jester said to the dire leopard. “A proper person name.” She bit her lip with thought. “How ‘bout Caleb? Caleb Widogast.”

The dire leopard remained silent staring at her. Its presence wasn’t as frightening as it was at the wedding. Now it felt almost like just another animal.

“I believe that counts as a yes,” The Traveler said. “And I think it’s an excellent name.”

Jester beamed. “See this won’t be so bad.”

* * *

Being happy around the Traveler was an easy thing to do. His presence was all it took to make her day better. But when he left, the reality of the situation became all the harder to deal with.

Jester crumbled on the bed again. It hurt so much. She thought that naming Caleb would make his presence easier to tolerate, but he was still a monster. Crying tears that she thought she had already spent, Jester hugged her pillow tightly to her chest.

The dire leopard, no, Caleb made low guttural growls from his cage. They’d sputter and stop and then start again wavering and weak.

Clutching her pillow over her ears, Jester tried to silence the terrible sound, but the growling continued. She hummed the songs that her mom would probably be singing that night, but it was no use. It was like the growl echoed into her bones. “SHUT UP!” Jester screamed. Tears streamed down her face.

The growling finally stopped and Jester collapsed onto her bed shaking. If she was going to survive this year, it was going to take a miracle.

* * *

A clanging noise woke Jester up. The sun was out and a tray was being lowered into the cave. It held a pitcher of water and bread and cheese on it.

Jester stared at it and her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten at all the day before. But it was a disappointing spread.

“Just take it already!” a voice hollered out at her. “We don’t got all day!”

She grabbed the tray and stuck her tongue out. The tray went back up, but the guards stuck around.

Caleb stared at her licking his lips. Jester took a step back away from him.

A new tray was lowered down and Jester felt sick looking at it. Raw meat was piled up on it. Steaks and great hunks of roughly cut roasts. Some of it was greenish and sickly looking.

“What is that for?” Jester asked not daring to get close to it.

“It’s for your husband! You don’t expect him to eat fancy sandwiches, do you?” the guard hollered.

Jester’s stomach flipped flopped at the idea of touching it, but it wasn’t like she had a choice. Well, she could’ve refused and let Caleb starve, but he didn’t ask for this any more than she did. Gathering all her nerve, Jester grabbed the tray holding it as far away from herself as possible. Just the smell of it was nauseating.

As she got close to the cage, Caleb stood up. Startled, Jester threw the tray of meat and ran. Laughter echoed from above. Jester balled up her fists ready to yell when she remembered her prank. She smoothed out her wedding dress smearing it with meat juices. “Thank you!” she called out. “This will make a wonderful breakfast!”

The guards laughed and left without another word to her. Jester sighed. This was going to be harder than she had thought, but she was going to make it work. She took the pitcher and poured a little water on her hands getting the grossness off them.

Meanwhile, Caleb was next to the bars with a paw stretched out pulling the meat into the cage piece by piece. Jester expected him to eat it all as soon as he got it close to himself. But instead, the dire leopard just set the meat next to himself in a neat little pile and then would work on getting the next piece. Soon it was all in the cage except for one steak that was too far out of reach. He’d stretch and claw at it but it was too far away from him.

“You’re not going to get it,” Jester said. “There’s no way you can get it.”

Caleb looked at her and then the steak.

“I’m not touching it. You have enough meat without it,” she said crossing her arms.

The dire leopards stared at her for a long moment before huffing out what almost sounded like a sigh and curled up in the middle of the cage.

“Seriously?” Jester asked. “You’re not even going to eat any of it?”

Caleb settled down even lower.

Jester rolled her eyes. It wasn’t like he was any concern to her anyways. She already did her part. Settling down on the bed, she sat cross legged and ate her bread and cheese. It was too much to eat all at once, but she managed to make a considerable dent in it.

“So, now what?” she asked herself.

Caleb lazily opened an eye and closed it again.

“A nap? That's a pretty good suggestion, Caleb,” Jester said. She sprawled out on top of the covers. It was starting to get too warm for blankets during the day. “It’s not like I have anything better to do.” Not like she’d ever have anything better to do ever again, but she banished that thought immediately. Jester had a lot of important things to do, just not right away.

* * *

The sounds of grossness woke Jester up from her nap. It took her a moment to remember where she was and she almost cried. In his cage, Caleb was eating his meat and making all sorts of disgusting sounds while he was at it.

Jester glared at him, but he just kept eating. She knew that he was just doing what came naturally, but it didn’t stop it from being disgusting. “Can’t you at least do that looking in the other direction?”

Caleb turned around and went back to his noisy eating.

“Do you understand me?” Jester whispered, but Caleb just kept chomping down on his food. She sighed. “I guess that was too much to hope for.” Caleb was just a monster and nothing more.

Finally, he finished eating, but instead of lying down, he went to the bars of his cage and reached again for the final steak.

“Seriously? I thought you already knew you’re never going to reach it,” Jester said.

Caleb clawed towards the steak and then looked over at Jester.

She sighed. “You really think I’m going to get that for you?”

The dire leopard looked over at the steak again and then back at her.

“Fine,” she grumbled getting off the bed. “I hope you appreciate me touching this for you.” Jester picked up the cold slimy meat and quickly threw it at Caleb.

He deftly caught it and quickly ate it all up. Turning around three times, he lied down and began licking his paws. Caleb almost looked like a giant cat when he did that and Jester had to fight back a giggle.

“You're a very silly, Caleb,” she said.

Caleb gave her an odd look and went back to cleaning his paws.

* * *

Nobody came back to the cave for the rest of the day. It wasn’t until late in the morning the next day did the guards return with food for Jester and Caleb.

“Where were you?” Jester asked. “Why didn’t you come back yesterday?”

“We’re only paid to come here once a day,” the guard said. “This should be enough for you.” The tray held the same thing it did the day before of bread, cheese, and water.

Jester scowled at it. “I need more than just bread and cheese. Haven’t you heard of fruit or maybe pastries?”

“You get what you get!” the guard shouted.

“But couldn’t you come twice a day at least?” Jester asked. The guards were terrible, but they were people and Jester was already getting tired of only having the dire leopard for company.

The guards didn’t even bother giving her a response before they left. "Come back! Please!" Jester called out. She couldn't help it. Being trapped there with only a dire leopard for company was more than she could take.

But no one came back. They'd abandoned her.

Jester slid Caleb's meat to him and face planted on her bed not even bother to wash her hands. It was all more than she could handle. Everything was terrible and Jester couldn’t handle it. Fat tears began to wet the blankets.

Caleb growled that strange guttering growl of his again. It made Jester's stomach churn. He'd start and stop and lurch like he was trying to make a specific sound but just couldn't.

"Do you have to do that?!" Jester sat up. "Everything's terrible and it's all your fault! If I wasn't married to you, I'd still be with my mom, but now she's all by herself without me and I don't know how she's going to be okay without me! She needs me." That last part came out as a whisper. The tears started afresh running down her cheeks.

The dire leopard stared at her silent and then growled low again.

"Why? Why are you doing that? Can't you just be quiet?" Jester asked.

He slowly blinked and growled even harder.

Jester threw her pillow at the cage. "STOP IT!! No one wants you here!"

Caleb stopped his growling and turned around with his back to her.

"About time," Jester grumbled. She glared at him. Now she had to go all the way to his cage to get her pillow, but that could wait til later.

Curling up, Caleb went back to sleep.

"Is that all you do?" Jester asked. There really wasn't anything to do in the cave, but it was just frustrating. "Well, I'm going to take a nap too and don't you dare wake me up."

* * *

The rest of the day was quiet. The tray of food included an orange and an old donut, but it was better than nothing. Caleb ate noisily, but maybe he couldn't help that. Jester still glared at him the whole time. She had a feeling that the rest of their year was going to follow this pattern unless she went mad from the boredom of it all first.

Jester woke up to a terrible smell the next day though. It was worse than even the meat. "Ugh, Caleb," she grumbled. "Did you get sick?"

Caleb barely looked at her instead he remained on his side panting hard.

"What's the matter?" Jester asked, but she didn't get an answer. Not that she had expected one. Carefully, she approached Caleb’s cage. The smell grew stronger the closer she got to Caleb. Jester gasped when she got a proper look at him.

The wound on his hind leg was swollen and a putrid pus was seeping out of it. Caleb was breathing hard and could hardly hold his head up. Jester had to cover her mouth so close to him.

“Caleb! Your leg’s infected,” she told him. The dire leopard continued to pant and stare out with glassy eyes. Jester fiddled with her symbol of the Traveler. She could heal him, but that meant reaching her arm through the bars and touching him. Who knew how the beast would react to that? “How did you even get sick so fast?”

Caleb only whined in response.

Jester bit her lip. “I can heal you, you know. But I have to touch you, so you have to promise that you won’t bite me.”

The dire leopard tried to stand up but he fell back down. A weak snarl escaped his lips.

“Caleb, you’re sick,” Jester said. It felt silly to talk to him, but she knew if she didn’t do anything, she’d just feel guilty. He was frustrating and a monster, but he didn’t deserve to be sick because of some stupid lord. “I’m just going to touch your back, that’s all. Now, don’t you dare bite me.” No response. She took a deep breath. “Okay, here I go.” Gathering all her nerve, Jester stuck her arm through the bars, leaning as far as she could. Her fingers just barely brushed his side. The power of the Traveler moved through her as she healed her monsterous husband and gave him a little restoration.

The dire leopard shifted and Jester scrambled away from him. Caleb stood up and stared at her for a long moment before dipping his head down at her.

“Are, are you thanking me?” Jester asked.

Caleb nodded.

“Can you understand me?”

Again, Caleb nodded.

Jester stared at him. This meant something, she knew it did, but what? “Caleb, are you magic?”

He merely huffed and turned around curling up into a ball.

“You’re boring,” Jester said. “I hope you know that, Caleb.”

Caleb just wiggled into a more comfortable ball.

Clanging interrupted Jester's thoughts alerting her that the guards were there. They brought down the same things as the day before.

Jester frowned at her tray. It was okay, but didn’t take care of all her needs. "Can you bring a tub of water? I need to take a bath. Actually, two tubs, Ca- my husband needs something to drink out of."

"We don't make the orders, but we'll see what we can do," the guard said. They sounded different from the ones before. For one thing, they didn't yell at her.

"Thank you!" Jester called back. She gathered hers and Caleb's meals and brought them in. Jester washed her hands and tore into her donut. "Why do you wait so long to eat Caleb? It's just going to get all weird and gross."

Caleb just huffed and curled up tighter.

"Fine, go sleep. You don't have anything better to do." Jester paced the cave. It was dirty and brown with more dirt, but there was a wall of stone on one side that was promising if she could get some chalk or, even better, paints. She took a handkerchief and wetted it a little to wash the wall. Washing the dirt off didn't take very long, but it did give her something to do even for a short while. Next, Jester went through all the drawers of her dresser and nightstand. They mostly just contained clothes from her own wardrobe, but she did find some old hard candies and a charcoal pencil that looked like it was forgotten in the drawer. A smile spread across Jester's face, and she skipped over to her stone wall.

She tapped her chin with her pencil. The first piece of art in her home needed to be something special, but she didn't know what it should be. There was always the classic Traveler doodle or perhaps a dick, but for once, neither of those felt right. Jester nearly considered drawing her mother, but just thinking of her made Jester want to cry with homesickness. Caleb made a whuffling sound in his sleep catching Jester’s attention. Perhaps he wasn't the perfect model, but he was interesting looking. Careful not to waste any charcoal, Jester began sketching her husband as he slept. Drawing all his spots wasn't an option if she wanted to keep drawing beyond this picture, but she was able to suggest the presence of them. Humming, Jester added the finishing details and took a step back. It wasn't perfect, but it was a good drawing. "Hey, Caleb! Look It's you!"

Sleepily, Caleb raised his head up and looked at where Jester was pointed.

"Pretty good likeness, huh?" she asked grinning. It felt so good to have drawn something again.

Caleb sat up and growled. The low sputtering one.

"Again?" Jester rolled her eyes. "What's wrong with it? I thought it was a pretty good picture."

He settled down lower still growling.

Jester frowned with thought. "You're not growling, are you? Caleb, are you trying to purr?"

Caleb nodded and made the sound harder.

“You were trying to comfort me those times before.” Now Jester just felt mean for yelling at him. “You’re actually a nice monster aren’t you?”

He turned his head away, but continued his stuttering purr.

* * *

The next morning along with the pitcher, the guard sent down two buckets of water. Not enough for a bath, but enough for Caleb to have a decent drink and for Jester to wash up a little.

Jester could hardly wait for the guards to leave so that she could finally get clean. She first had to take care of Caleb making sure he had his food and could get to his water.

"Cay-leb, I'm going to get undressed now, are you going to sneak a peek?" Jester asked, waggling her eyebrows.

Caleb turned around stopping drinking in the middle of a lap.

"Oh, you're no fun. We're married you know and you're a leopard. So really it's not like there's any reason for you not to look," Jester said. She unzipped the wedding dress and never felt so free before. The dress was dirtier than she had realized for having worn it for so long. Her skin loved the feeling of the air again. Jester took a sponge and her time washing herself up. It felt so good to be clean again. Fortunately, her favorite dress had been packed up into the dresser, so she put it on.

"Caleb! I'm not naked any more!" Jester called out. Caleb turned around cautiously. She giggled and gave him a spin. "See? White's not really my color. I mean I wear a little white sometimes, but I like colors more. What about you, Caleb?"

The dire leopard nodded.

"I knew you had good taste Caleb," Jester said with a grin.

Caleb rumbled a little something, but Jester had no clue what it meant. It wasn't what counted for him as a purr.

"Caleb? Do you like it here? Do you like me?" Jester asked.

He just stared at her.

Jester crouched down watching him. "I hate it here, but I don't think I hate you."

Caleb blinked slowly a couple of times and then this time purred.

"I like you too, Caleb," Jester said.

* * *

The next couple of weeks were better, but still boring and lonely. Jester had managed to convince the guards to get her more art supplies, but there was only so much painting she could take in one day. She still often followed Caleb's example and napped, but that was getting old too. Caleb understood her, she knew that much, but he was not much of a conversationalist. And the Traveler had only visited her the one time.

"This is so boring, Caleb" Jester groaned from the bed. "How can any place be so boring?"

Caleb rawred a little meow and rolled over.

"I should teach you some tricks, Caleb. It could be a lot of fun and then when we get out of here, we can make all sorts of money in the circus," Jester said.

He looked at her and then closed his eyes. At first, Caleb would pace a lot even with how much he'd nap, but now, he spent more and more of the day sleeping.

"You're very lazy, you know that right?" Jester asked. "We could be world famous and find you a pretty girl dire leopard."

Caleb stared at her.

Jester sighed. "Fine, we won't do that, but it wouldn't have to be a girl dire leopard. If you prefer boys, we could get you a boy dire leopard, a super handsome one." A wuffling huff was all the response Jester got. “Well, I don’t see you coming up with a better idea of what we should do once we get out of here.”

He looked up at her. Caleb would probably disappear into the jungle the first chance he got. But the circus was a good daydream.

A loud snarling sound interrupted Jester’s thoughts. Caleb startled and stared at the hole to their cave.

“It’s probably just nothing,” Jester said. "Just some animals out in the wild. Nothing more than that." But an uneasy feeling in her stomach told Jester otherwise.

The snarls grew louder until a saber-toothed tiger jumped down into the cave. Jester fell off the bed. There was a monster(well, another monster) in the cave, and Jester had no weapon to fight it with. The tiger slinked forward towards her. She reached for her symbol of the Traveler, but she couldn't find it. It must've fallen off her at some point. Meanwhile the tiger kept getting closer.

Caleb roared in his cage, but it did nothing to stop the tiger. Closing in on Jester, the tiger managed to corner Jester. The dire leopard threw itself against its cage repeatedly, but the door wouldn’t budge.

"Go away," Jester whispered frozen in fear. "Please go away. I don't taste good." Tears streamed down her face as she stared down the tiger's mouth. A loud crashing sound filled the air as the tiger pressed a paw on Jester's chest. She could feel every claw pressing down on her as blood began to dye her dress.

And then with a blur of tawny fur the tiger was off of her. Instead, Caleb was top of the tiger tearing and biting at it. Fur flew as the two cats fought each other. Jester backed away from them and searched for her Traveler's symbol. The sounds of the fight surrounded her as she hurriedly looked. With a cry of triumph, Jester pulled it out from under her bed.

Caleb was looking rough covered in his and the other cat's blood, but the tiger was bloody as well. The tiger had managed to pin Caleb though and looked ready to bite through his neck. "Help us Traveler," Jester pleaded as she pictured the most useful thing in the world. At once, a giant lollipop appeared and batted the tiger off Caleb smacking it against the wall. Not wasting a second, Caleb pounced finishing off the tiger.

Jester gagged at the sight of it, but managed to keep her lunch down. "Thank you," she whispered to Caleb.

The dire leopard stared at her for a moment before collapsing.

“Caleb!” Jester rushed to his side. He growled and tried to raise his hackles, but he fell back down. “Caleb, you’re hurt!”

Blood caked his fur and he was covered in cuts. Caleb looked up at Jester and slowly blinked.

Jester carefully gathered Caleb into her lap not caring if he stained her clothes. “It’s going to be okay,” she said, healing him. His wounds all closed, but he still laid limply in her lap. “Caleb, Caleb, you’re okay now. You can get up.”

Caleb moved his paws beneath him, but didn’t have the strength to get up. There was blood drooling out of his mouth.

“But I healed you,” Jester said. Tears welled up in her eyes. “You have to be okay. You saved me. You didn’t have to do that. So you can’t die!”

He licked her hand lathering it with reddish slobber and closed his eyes.

“No! No no no no no no,” Jester whispered. “What did I do wrong?”

“Nothing,” the Traveler said appearing beside her. “Sometimes you must say goodbye to mortal things.”

Jester shook her head. “But Caleb isn’t just a thing. He only got hurt cause he saved me. We have to save him!”

The Traveler sighed. “There are some things that are beyond my power. Broken hearts, old age, truly powerful curses, a love of the theatre. Gods are not as all powerful as mortals like to pretend.”

“But, but what am I supposed to do?” Jester asked.

“Say goodbye.” And with that the Traveler was gone.

Jester hugged Caleb to her chest. “Oh Caleb, I’m so sorry.” She kissed her husband’s forehead and tears fell into his fur. And then he stirred in her arms. Pulling back to look at him, Jester loosened her grip.

Caleb twitched and stiffened shaking all over. He grew lighter in her arms and then stilled.

“Caleb? Caleb!?” Her heart stilled and she barely dared to breathe.

He looked up his fur slipping as though it was a hood and a human man stared at her with familiar blue eyes.

Jester gasped. “Caleb?”

“Ja,” he said nodding. Auburn hair hung over his pale and too thin face. He pressed his head against her. “Jester. Jester.”

“What, what just happened?” Jester asked. “You were a dire leopard, but now you’re not. You were dying. Are you okay?”

Caleb nodded weakly. “Ja, I’m fine now. I just need time to get better I think. As for being a dire leopard, I was cursed to be one, but you broke it.”

Jester gasped. “I did? You mean when I kissed you!”

“Nein.” Caleb shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Kisses are so often a meaningless gesture, but tears? To cry for someone from the bottom of your heart? There’s something special in that.”

“My tears broke your curse?”

Caleb nodded. “Ja, but I am sorry for making you cry. I’m not worthy of your tears.”

“But they saved you and you saved me,” Jester said. “And you are my husband.” She could feel her cheeks grow warm with that.

Caleb’s face turned red. “J-ja, we are married, but it doesn’t have to count if you don’t want it to.”

Jester ran her thumb over the corner of Caleb’s fur. “I think I want it to count.”

“You know nothing about me,” Caleb said. “I could be terrible.”

“No, you couldn’t be terrible, and I do know you. You’re kind. You purred for me trying to comfort me even when I was being mean to you and even though you really couldn’t purr. You’re brave. You broke out of the cage to save me from that saber-toothed tiger. You’re my husband. And I want to get to know you even better, Caleb,” Jester said.

Caleb looked away his face still red. “I want to get to know you better too.”

“Then we should totally stay married,” Jester said. She paused for a moment “So do you really think kissing’s pointless?”

“In magical matters, ja, but for the mundane, it can be very fun,” Caleb said. He stole glances at her from the corner of his eye.

Jester grinned at him. “Well, there’s nothing better to do in this cave.”

“I would certainly say so,” Caleb said grinning shyly.

Leaning down, Jester kissed him gently earning a purr. Maybe this marriage wouldn’t be so bad.


End file.
